Transcript

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>> It may be the next evolution of the so-called sharing economy. Startup wework, which first offered shared office space, now rolling out a communal style residence, welive. 110 Wall Street is their first experiment. I'm Cooper for Reuters in New York. We're inside one of the shared spaces at the welive building.

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It's where people spend a lot of time doing this, but you could also be doing this and getting to know your neighbor. This fully furnished studio apartment for two goes for $1700 per person. At that price you either get to sleep in this Murphy bed in the living room, or in the hallway behind the curtain.

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If you want the place to yourself, you pay $2,700, about the average New York City price tag. The company's co-founder, Miguel McKelvey, says that WeLive is offering a small space, but a big community.>> I think there are plenty of small apartments. That's a natural condition in New York.

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But the premise here is that you're joining a community. So you have to be willing on some level to engage with other people. And the value has to be that you're part of this family, this network.>> The building hosts movie and karaoke night.>> Cooking classes in large shared kitchens and happy hour gatherings to promote mingling.

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Residents can even treat this like a hotel and stay for as short as a day. Which means this downtown location, which has over 200 units mostly attracts folks who are at an in-between stage of their lives.>> I think the key condition, or at least in my>> conversations with people is some sort of transition.

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So for many people that could be coming to the city for the first time or starting their first job, but it could also mean at a later point in your career deciding that you wanna move back from the suburbs into the city. And being like I don't know how that's gonna work, I can't deal with renting an apartment and buying all the furniture but I wanna go try it out.

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>> WeWork which has a $16 billion evaluation opened their second such residential building in Crystal City, Virginia last month.